The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1887-05-26

transom is closed, Nellie, or l neve
can endure it"
"Men always snore when they are
tired, man," said the girl. why.
me father used to snore so loud in hay
ing time that you'd think all the pigs
in the neighborhood was being stuck
at the same instint."
An excellent smile, Mrs. Winches-
ter thought. Nellie's father made n
more pig.
That evening our invalid was feeling
unusually wretched. She had a cold
in her head which caused even her
well-born and well-bred little nose to
feel uncomfortable. She would go to
bed and go to sleep before her from
bone neighbor could have time to COM
mence his overture. If she could
avoid the opening piece, she might
%perchance escape the rest of the pro-
gramme.
About eight o'clock the chamber
maid knocked at her door. but was not
admitted.
.sIt's only that Ifn told to AK if ye
feel able for a game d whist" the girl
explained through the keyhole.
"No," was the somewhat nasal re-
ply. please say hat / am very sorry
and l have retired for the night"
The host and his wife were extremely
fond of cards, Mrs. Winchester knew,
and she smiled as she thought of what
she had escaped in not being able to
play with the snoring guest, for, of
course, the fourth hand could be no
other.
By nine O'Clock the house was per-
fectly quiet; and after many futile at
tempts to arrange her pillow so that
she could breathe with her mouth
closed. the patient sank off into an un-
easy slumber with her mouth open.
The result can be imagined. With fire.
quent gasps and jerks-and, shall we
say itf snorts-the refined and super
sensitive victim of a cold in the head
would partially return to consciousness.
then lapse again into a sound, but GER
tainly noisy, slumber. But at last she
awoke with an awful start, to find her.
self sitting upright in a state of terror
impossible to describe. Some one had
fred a pistol close to her ear. She was
sure of it. Nothing else would account
for the frightful noise and nervous
shock. For a moment she hardly dared
lift her hands to her head for fear
she should find that some section
of it had been blown away.
| Her nose was still there. She
knew that without examination. 1t
| seemed to her like some colossal prom
ontory in a state of blaze. By the
softened light of the night lamp, which
always accompanied the widow in all
her travels, she soon saw that she must
have been mistaken. How inexpli-
cable! Mrs. Winchester was not super
stitious, but she finally concluded that
this report must be a warning of some
kind. Could it by any possibility refer
to Mr.. Browne? The much perplexed
invalid thought not. It did seem, as
she for the thousandth time enumer-
ated this ~gentleman's good qualities,
that in true culture and refinement he
was a giant in a race of pigmies. This
satisfactorily settled, Mrs. Winchester
carefully sc~rutinized, her once patri-
clan nose, just now in an acute state of
Inflammation, and plebeian to a degree
which so shocked her sensibilities that
she extinguished her small luminary in
disgust, and applied the necessary
indictments in the dark, and then
sought her couch and tried to sleep.
But the influenza was stronger
than Morpheus, and for an hour
or more the sufferer twisted
and turned, punched her pillows,
cou7ted, and spelled, and all to no pur-
pose. But there is always an end to
all conditions; and at last fatigue came
to the rescue, and the goal was almost
reached, when, horror of horrors! a
sound as of a bursting shell came from
the room across the corridor! The
mystery was solved. That was what
had gone off before when Mrs. Win
chester thought she had lost the top OF
her head. The widows indignation
was in exact proportion to her physical
suffering, and her chronic disgust OF
snoring and snorers. Explosion num-
Der one was followed by a series OF
modified but regular snorts, which
another SCATTERING report which seemed
to Mrs. Winchester's ov~er-wrought i'm
agination t. have knocked out both
transoms and smashed things general
ly. This climax was followed by a few
moments of silence, broken ut last by
the sound of heavy breathing. pro
tracted groans and occasional nasa,
earthquakes.
Mrs. Winchester felt sure that il
would be impossible to live till morn
ing under such conditions. The res
in the music were all delusive, ant
were invariable followed by fierce
c~rescendoes which were sure to spill
when they reached their height, in /.
way which ought to have demolished
the orchestra
And so the night wore on. TIL,
widow knew she never slept one wink
At any rate the morning found he1
much exhausted, and scarcely able tt
sip the coffee which Nellie brought a
the usual hour. After breakfast Mrs
Winchester had decided to lay the mat
ter before her hostess. The new
boarder's room, or her w must b,
changed.
..She is coming up by and by any
way" said Nellie smiling. .sYou see
nam, they had a great surprise for y
last evening"
II had all the surprise I are for,
the lady responded YEARLY,
.tBut, you see, mann, this was a goo'
one," the girl persisted. "They wa
going to get you down to the cards
and thin the door was going to po
open, and a foine, handsome gintle
man was going to walk in and Sc
down."
''What-that one?"
; Mrs. Winchester pointed feebl